Originally Posted by
BearX220
I think it's perfectly clear that if United Airlines, at least, had been forced into Chapter 7 liquidation / breakup, the industry would be better off today. Allowing UA to operate for years under C11 protection from its creditors gave it an unfair pricing advantage and kept too much capacity in the marketplace. If UA and, let's say, US had both failed years ago, leaving us with three or four stronger legacies instead of five or six weaker ones, the barriers to entry would have been lowered for VX-type ventures with better service and we'd all be happier now.
Actually, I agree with the above in principle but (sorry for going OT, here) I am glad that UA survived with E+, better upgrades (IMHO) and better system map. Yes, without UA and US, excess capacity would have been driven out of the system but, I fear, at the cost of much higher prices and, probably, even worse service. You cannot even fly comfortably in Europe at any price anymore-first/business class seating is 3x3!
As I've said in other posts, it's so sad that this is not a viable industry. Transportation almost never is/was. The post office, railroads and bus companies proved that over decades of operations. (as one of the first RR moguls said famously, "no one makes money operating this business, all the money is made when building it").
I hope someone can make money operating an airline but, to date, nobody can. (And don't come back with WN - commodity trading is not airline operations).